Conditional Respawn Zones

This article will discuss the conditional elements that turn on and off
Respawn Zones in the Reach game play for bomb and flag game types. This
is an article that I had been meaning to write for some time, but
haven't found much need. There are very few maps that actually use the
feature in community forged maps, but that seems to be changing lately.

Bungie gave us AS_RES_ZONE, AS_RES_ZONE_AWAY, CTF_RES_ZONE, and
CTF_RES_ZONE_AWAY game type labels for the purpose of enabling Respawn
Zones conditioned upon the state of the team's bomb or flag
respectively. This article will discuss the conditions that will turn on
or off each of the Respawn Zones with these labels. In each case, they
are completely complimentary. For example, when AS_RES_ZONE labeled
Respawn Zone is enabled, the AS_RES_ZONE_AWAY labeled Respawn Zone is
disabled; and the other way around.

For the remainder of this article, Respawn Zone will refer to any of the
three types of Respawn Zones collectively. Strong Zone will refer to
the Respawn Zone object, Weak Zone will refer to the Weak Respawn Zone
object, and Anti Zone will refer to the Anti Respawn Zone object
specifically.

Assault

For the Assault game types, the two conditional game type labels that
can be applied to Respawn Zones are AS_RES_ZONE and AS_RES_ZONE_AWAY.
One and only one is enabled at any time, and is determined by the armed
state of the bomb.

The bomb takes on several phases in its life: (a) spawned, (b) transit,
(c) arming, (d) armed, and (e) disarming. If disarmed, the bomb returns
to the transit phase, or the spawned phase if the game type is
configured for immediate reset of the bomb.

For the purpose of this discussion, the only phases we are interested in
is when the bomb is armed (in the armed phase or disarming phase). If
the bomb is armed, then AS_RES_ZONE_AWAY is enabled and AS_RES_ZONE is
disabled. In all other phases of the bomb's life cycle, AS_RES_ZONE is
enabled and AS_RES_ZONE_AWAY is disabled.

CTF

For CTF game types, the two conditional game type labels that can be
applied to Respawn Zones are CTF_RES_ZONE and CTF_RES_ZONE_AWAY. One
and only one is enabled at any time and is determined by the state of
the flag.

Unlike the bomb, the life cycle of the flag is very simple - it is
either on its flag stand or it is not. If it is on its flag stand, then
Respawn Zones labeled CTF_RES_ZONE will be enabled and those labeled
CTF_RES_ZONE_AWAY will be disabled. If the flag is not on its stand,
then those Respawn Zones labeled CTF_RES_ZONE_AWAY will be enabled and
those labeled CTF_RES_ZONE will be disabled.

More Information

There are three types of Respawn Zones, the Strong Zone, the Weak Zone,
and the Anti Zone. These game type labels will affect each the same way.
They only react to the bomb or flag that belongs to the team assigned
to the Respawn Zone.

A Respond Zone that is assigned to a neutral team and one of the four
game type labels mentioned here is considered a mis-configured Respawn
Zone - an error on the part of the forger. The results are undefined,
but tests indicate that the game type label is simply ignored and the
Respawn Zone is enabled. Tests have not been performed for team assigned
Respawn Zones for which there are no bomb or flag components to the
game, but it is assumed to work similarly as if it were neutral team
assigned - it also is considered an error on the part of the forger
whose results are undefined.

Bringing It All Together

Keep in mind that a Strong Zone so heavily weights the Respawn Points
within its zone that unless very specific conditions are met, the team
assigned that Respawn Zone will be forced to spawn in that Respawn Zone
at one of the Respawn Points within it. Therefore, assigning one of
these conditional game type labels to a Weak Zone within the Strong Zone
will have the affect of shifting preference of spawning within the
Strong Zone. Remember, the Weak Zone only prefers, while the Strong Zone
effectively defines spawning boundaries.

Likewise, setting a Weak Zone to one of these game type labels outside
the team's Strong Zone will make the Weak Zone useless, as it will never
be accessible to the team, since it lies outside the team's Strong Zone
- the team's defined boundary for spawning.

It was intended by Bungie that these labels be used to alter the
spawning behavior during the game play dependent upon the state of the
objective. Obviously the intent is to encourage or force spawning in a
more forward location on the map if the bomb is armed or the flag was
taken off its stand, to help in forward progress for a team. In some
maps, this can be very powerful in making the game play more enjoyable,
rather than forcing a team to trek the entire map just to help their
team keep the bomb armed, or to flank the enemy leaving their base with
their flag.

Few maps actually use these game type labels, and those that do don't
necessarily use them in a way that make a lot of sense. But a couple of
uses I have come across are worth noting here.

If a map is divided in half between red and blue teams, and each half
covered with the team's respective Strong Zone for objective games, if
the Strong Zone were assigned CTF_RES_ZONE rather than CTF, then the
effect would be no zone at all for the team when their flag is off its
stand. They could spawn anywhere on the map. This is an interesting idea
for one flag, as it allows the defenders to spawn at the enemy base to
cut off their attempts of bringing the flag back to their base to score.
It is not so good for multi-flag, as it would allow much easier
opportunities to steal the enemy's flag in return without extending the
same level of effort in the trek of the map.

Another idea was to use the CTF_RES_ZONE_AWAY on an Anti Zone along the
back portion of a team's half of the map to encourage forward spawning
toward the middle of the map, still within the team's Strong Zone. While
this does not guarantee the spawning behavior, it does encourage it to
occur.

Summary

It is clear that Bungie intended for forgers to provide some dynamics to
their CTF and Assault game type spawning with these game type labels.
Understanding when they are enabled or disabled is key to using them
successfully to make the game play more entertaining and competitive.